


The Bronze Compass

by IcyAndTheFrostBites



Series: Fantastic Soulmates [1]
Category: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Loads of OCs, Takes place during 1914 and 1917, soulmate compass
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-16
Updated: 2019-01-16
Packaged: 2019-10-11 00:54:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,605
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17436773
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IcyAndTheFrostBites/pseuds/IcyAndTheFrostBites
Summary: "It was Holly Andrews that had pointed out howunusualher compass was, in its lack of ornate-ness and delicate simplicity. And she has to do so at the most difficult age one possibly could: thirteen. It was a terrible age to be."Most people are born with a compass to point them to their soulmate. Tina is one of them.





	The Bronze Compass

**Author's Note:**

> Hi.
> 
> Welcome to my weird soulmate au that I'm still trying to construct in my brain. This was written late last year (back in December) and finished this year. Mostly at my work, because unless you work near an airport or in the city, hotels aren't busy this time of year. (Although yesterday was a doozy for me. Lots of running around and cleaning.)
> 
> Also, coming down with something, so after this I'm going to finish my pear cider, take a hot shower, and sleep for the next twelve hours.

There was nothing particularly special about her compass that she can ever really think of. It’s small, and fits into the pocket of her school skirts for her timepiece – which really doubled as a compass pocket for a great deal of the wizarding world. Very few witches or wizards her age actually owned a timepiece, but a great deal of them carried their compasses around. And the compasses were deemed far more important, after all.

It was Holly Andrews that had pointed out how  **_unusual_ ** her compass was, in its lack of ornate-ness and delicate simplicity. And she has to do so at the most difficult age one possibly could: thirteen. It was a terrible age to be.

Tina has her books spread out in front of her, legs crossed on the chair. She’d tucked herself away in her corner desk of their room. She was usually the only one in unless it was to sleep, change, or doll up for the weekend.

It was one of those rare occasions late on Saturday evening when the girls had very little to do. So, they gathered in the dorm room, specifically around Holly’s bed.

The room was decorated in their school colors, blue and cranberry – much like the rest of the school. Above them, on the arched ceiling, golden Thunderbirds flew across a starry sky, spotted by clouds that crackled with ribbons of lightning – the thunder unheard. The beautiful birds were as uninterested in the conversation as Tina was.

“...you heard?” Amelia said, braiding Sarah’s hair. Tina tuned in on the conversation, rolling her eyes and gagging at the stupidity of it all.

“Heard what?” Diana said, hanging with her head off the bed. She arched over the side like a freakish doll. Her dark hair fell away from her face that was growing dangerously purple. It made her already dark eyes stand out.

“Natalia Sokolov met her soulmate,” Holly said. “He’s older, and he’s very handsome.”

“You’ve seen him?” Amelia said, gaping. Sitting as she was, Amelia reminded Tina of a frog.

“Uh-huh. I was with her and Jeanne and Ruta when they met. Her compass pulled her right to him. She face planted in the snow, right at his feet. He wasn’t too happy that his soulmate was still in school.”

“You think it’s going to work out?” Sarah said, green eyes shining hopefully.

“Why wouldn’t it work out?” Diana said, frowning. “They’re soulmates!”

“Not everybody who has a soulmate finds the relationship to work, it just means they have like souls,” Holly said with a shrug. Her gaze turned toward Tina, eyes glinting maliciously. “Take our Por-pen-ti-na, for example.”

Tina held back winces as Holly over-enunciated every syllable of her name, popping the consonants and clicking the ‘t’. It was a change from the usual insult of ‘Porcupine’. She felt the other girls’ eyes slide over to her as Holly wanted them to. 

The ire between the pair had started their first year at Ilvermorny, when Tina had showed Holly up in almost every class they had. And then dumping the tomato juice on her during their first week hadn’t helped matters much, either.

“I bet her soulmate takes one look at her and he’s scared away.” Holly crossed her arms, a smirk spreading across her face.

“What makes you think she even has one?” Sarah said, her voice picking up the cruelty Holly was giving off – as if she were a reverse Dementor (which, wouldn’t that be something?).

“She has a compass.” Holly pointed to the fine bronze chain that was hidden under a small pile of book, barely peeking out to catch their eye.

“Oh, Tina, show us,” Amelia said, bouncing on the bed. She was wriggling in absolute delight, completely unaffected by Holly.

“Yes, Porpentina,” Diana said, “show us your compass. We’re all friends here.”

“I don’t know why my compass is any of your business,” Tina said, sliding her books down to cover the rest of the chain. She pressed down, knowing the chain would leave a mark in the leather. 

“Oh come on,” Amelia said, getting up and striding across the room in four steps with her long legs. She brushed aside Tina and her books with ease, retrieving the compass and holding it up out of Tina’s reach. Really, if she hadn’t been sitting, they would have been on even ground.

Amelia made it back to the girls before Tina could even get out of her chair. 

Her compass was dangling between to fingers in front of Holly. Holly flipped it around, examining it. 

“It’s all… plain,” she said, far twisting in disgust. The other girls leaned in to see as well. 

“There’s nothing really special about it,” Diana said, docking it open. The rather plain face of the compass itself stared up at her, black and white with a bronze arm pointing east – across the ocean, as Tina knew it would. Opposite it was a simple engraving of… well, she wasn’t quite sure. It looked like a tree or animal or bug or something. It wasn’t very obvious to the girls either.

“It’s just like Porpentina,” Holly said, tossing it back at the girl, “plain and unusual in how plain it is. How queer.”

* * *

She clutched the small, bronze compass in her mittened hands, dark eyes scanning the horizon for… something. Behind her, she could hear Queenie chat amicably with a fishmonger – who was probably hoping for more than a few words with a pretty girl who bat her eyelashes at him.

Queenie wasn’t bound by a compass to some soulmate. She was free to love whomever she wanted. She was free to be with whomever she liked. So long as they weren’t a No-Maj, like that boy was. Tina didn’t really worry about him though, Queenie was just… practicing, as she so often said. One of them had to be somewhat decent with their flirting, after all.

With a deep breath, Tina closed her eyes and clutched the compass tighter. She could make out a fine, red line in front of her, existing but not. It was a tether to her and whoever was on the other end. Her soulmate.

Well, she supposed they were her soulmate, but she had yet to meet them. She never really put much thought into them, but after the conversation with Holly and the girls? She just hoped that, whoever they were, her soulmate was an honest, kind person.

Was that too much to ask for?

She was jerked back, physically and mentally, by the fishmonger.

“Hey,” they guy said, looking her up and down as he gripped her arm and pulled her away from the edge of the dock, “you okay? Don’t need to call a doctor or nothing? You were going to fall in.”

“I’m fine,” she said, pulling the compass closer to her heart.

“Teenie?” Queenie said, her brow furrowed their eyes met. A small sharp pinch from somewhere in her mind alerted her to an intruder. Damn, Queenie.

“I’m fine, really. Just… daydreaming.”

“About who gave you that necklace?” the fishmonger said, looking at her hands.

“Oh, no,” Queenie said, “that’s the compass that will lead her to her soulmate.”

“Soulmate? Well unless your soulmate is a sea monster, you won’t be finding much out there. Why don’t we step down from there and go inside for something to drink, yeah?”

“Sorry, we can’t.” Queenie looped her arm through Tina’s. “We need to get going. Our aunt is waiting for us. Maybe next time?

Queenie bat her eyes at him again, giving that annoying giggle. At fifteen, she really should have known better.

Tina found herself being pulled away from the docks and back into the familiar streets of the city. The air turned from a mix of brine and sweat to one choked with dirt and metal. She scrunched up her nose, already missing the air around Mount Greylock. It had only been two days since their winter break had started.

The pair found themselves winding down a busy road, passing advertisements for the Great War. The bold print calling for men and women to take action. America was finally entering the war and soldiers and nurses were in high demand. If she had been older, Tina would have gone to the recruitment office and enlisted.

“You’d really leave me behind?” Queenie said, giving her a sidelong look.

“I feel like I should be doing  **_something_ ** .”

“We’re still in school. You have more than a year left, Teenie.”

“I know.”

Queenie sighed, pulling Tina’s arm closer.

“So, the thread is still going across the ocean?”

“Yeah, although it seems a bit farther south than it used to,” Tina said. She swallowed the odd fear that had started to climb its way back up her throat. “Do you think… Do you think that they’ve gone off to fight in the war?”

“I hope not. Well, you’ll know in August, whether they are or not.”

“What do you mean?”

“Teenie, did you really forget? When you turn seventeen, you get to see a glimpse in the life of your soulmate.”

“We don’t know that for sure.”

“You have a compass,” Queenie said, taking them down an alley a bit closer to the home. She halted, taking Tina with her. “You have a compass and you can see the string.”

“But not everyone gets all three. What makes you think that I will?”

“You’re special, Tina.” Queenie untangled their arms and reached up, standing on the very tips of her toes, to brush a stand of hair back from Tina’s face. “You just don’t see it yet.”

**Author's Note:**

> Criticism, kudos, and concerns welcome. 
> 
> This was barely edited because pear cider. Also, podcasts are very distracting.


End file.
